


The Threads of Fate

by waywardadmiral



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-29
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-04-14 08:17:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14131959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waywardadmiral/pseuds/waywardadmiral
Summary: How does a group of people all end up together? Sometimes it's fate and sometimes its a trip to a coffee shop at 3 in the morning.





	1. Coffee for One

The light in his work space was dampening. Percy looked up for the first time in what had to be hours at this point. Taking a deep sigh, he stood up to pull the small chain on his overhead light. It looked like it was going to be another late night for him. Pain made its way up and down his spine. Hunching over a desk for hours on end did that to you, especially if you’re so far into your work that you don’t realize you’ve already been sitting at your desk since 11am. Slowly twisting his shoulder a solid _pop_ resonates through the shop, he turned in the other direction and another pop sounds, followed by another sigh, this time a sigh of relief as some of the tension and pain lifted from his bones.

Percy ran his hands through the top, long section of his hair before resting both of his hands on the top of his head. The book he had been working on restoring was an old copy of _Anna Karenina_. It was a first edition so he had special instructions to be careful with it, like he didn’t take extreme care with everything he restored, regardless of its value. This was a lucky case actually. There weren’t too many folded edges or turn bits to repair. It was mostly just getting the color back into the pages the best he could. This was the part that took the longest. He had to go from page to page using the special cleaning solution to take away the gunk but not to affect the paper in any way.

He took a walk over to the cabinet and grabbed all of the components and dropped them off on the desk before heading to the front door of the shop. He stuck his head out the door and flipped the sign from open to close before locking the door and heading back to his work. They were technically closed for a few hours at this point but he had gotten so absorbed that he forgot to change the sign. Settling back into his chair, the focus came back and Percy started back into his rhythm, letting the hours pass him by like a gentle breeze.

 

Vex’ahlia let out a soft yawn as she leaned against the counter. She took these shifts because they were easy, but man it was hard to get through the night sometimes. Midnight to 6am wasn’t really a _typical_ shift but it paid the bills, so that’s all the really mattered. Because of how late they were, she usually didn’t see many customers, if any. The time was mostly spent cleaning the shop, wiping down the windows, cleaning off the tables, sweeping the floor, the usual stuff that can’t get done at any other time because it’s a 24 hour place. Customers don’t like to see you clean but will complain if the place is dirty, it’s a vicious cycle.

Vex looked over at the clock on the wall. It was almost 3am, which means she was half way through her shift! The soft indie music that usually played through the store was replaced by something a little more fast paced. The managers of the store didn’t mind the change during the night shift, the soft indie beats at such a dead time had been known to put employees to sleep on occasion.

Standing up from her resting position on the counter, she turned her back on the door to the wall of mugs they kept for the customers that wanted to drink their beverages in the shop. They were all designed and crafted by local artists so each one was unique, which made what she was about to do even more difficult. On especially slow nights Vex liked to play a dangerous game to help her through the night. She liked to stack all of the mugs into a pyramid but because they were all hand made they didn’t all sit _quite_ right, making it easy for the whole thing to topple over. Right as she was about to put the first cup on the second level of the pyramid, the door chimed behind her, making her jump, almost losing her grip on the mug. She turned around to see a man way too young to have the amount of white hair he had, but he had big enough bags under his eyes to justify it.

“Oh! Uh, hi,” She said after putting down the mug she almost just dropped. “How can I help you?” She asked looking him over. He had a small amount of something smudged on his face that looked like grease, but she wasn’t sure. He pulled off his glasses and rubbed his eyes a little before putting them back on. They were an old fashioned pair that had a bunch of small magnifying glasses attached with swivel arms. Vex was amazed that those were even real, she had just seen them in movies and things, she didn’t think people actual wore them, let alone wore them in this day and age. He looked straight past her at the menu written neatly in chalk behind her. Some of the items on the menu changed with the season, so they used chalk markers and whoever had the nicest handwriting to write out the menu. He studied the menu for a while before looking back at Vex.

“Um, can I get a black coffee please?” He asked in an obviously overworked and tired voice. Why did he spend so much time looking at the menu if he was just going to get a black coffee? Who knew, but she nodded and turned around anyway.

“What blend do you want?” She asked over her shoulder, not turning around. The store had three different kinds of coffee, a blonde roast, a medium, and a dark roast. They also had a bunch of combination drinks, americanos, frappes, all that jazz.

“A blonde roast please, the uh… lighter the roast the more caffeine,” Percy said in the most tired Vex had ever heard. How long had been awake? Was he even fully awake at this point? How was she to know? Without even thinking about it she filled one of the cups that was meant to stay in the shop. She turned to hand him the mug before realizing her mistake.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t ask you if you wanted a to go cup.”

“No, it’s fine! I should take a break anyway,” Percy said taking the cup. The warmth of the mug spread through his hands and up his arms. There was nothing quite like the feel of a warm mug to make you feel better about everything in your life. “Thank you,” He said looking up from to cup to finally take in the woman in front of her. She had a long brown braid pulled over her shoulder. She had two blue feathers tucked behind her ear. He was speechless looking at her. He stood there, staring at her like an idiot due to the combination of his social awkwardness and his sleep deprivation.

“Do you need… sugar? Or cream or anything?” Vex asked after he just… stood there, not saying anything.

“Oh no! Sorry,” Percy said, pushed his glasses up with one hand before turning around quickly to go sit at a table. He picked one in the back corner and sat with his back facing the wall. Between sips of coffee he tried to sneak peaks at the girl behind the counter. She had turned back around, he couldn’t tell what she was doing but her back was to him. Percy took another sip of his coffee, letting it fill his body with warmth. He hadn’t realized how cold he was until the warmth made its way through his body like only fresh coffee could.

Vex went back to making her mug pyramid the second she was done dealing with Percy. Not only did she turn around because she wanted to keep working on it, she was also trying to hide her blush from the man in the corner of her shop. He had just stood there looking at her for so long, but he was also really cute? What was she supposed to do?

After a few minutes, the two of them both trying to sneak peaks at each other without the other one knowing, Percy finishes his coffee and stands up, leaving his mug on the counter near the door. “Thank you,” He said softly before leaving. Before Vex could think of anything to say he was out the door. Percy walked back over to the shop, and made his way back to his desk. He tried to get back into his work but all of his thoughts were swirling and unfocused. He took a deep sigh after spending another hour or two trying to get back into the swing of things before giving up and heading to bed, letting the sunrise lull him to sleep.


	2. A Bark to Remember

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Percy and Vex (and Trinket) have a run in at a dog park

The sun broke through the leaves on the tree in front of him and Percy sighed. It was his first day off in a long time and he  _ just _ wanted to sketch. But the sun didn’t agree with him and no matter where he went it seemed like the sun followed and tried to make it’s way to his eyes anyway it could. Percy looked up from his sketchbook and took a second to look around. The park wasn’t entirely populated but there were enough people there to keep it from being silent. There were people throwing frisbees for dogs, having picnics under trees, and generally just enjoying the day. It was nice to feel the sun on his skin. He was spending so much time in the shop that he couldn’t really remember the last time he just sat outside and enjoyed the world. But mainly what he wanted to do was work on his damn designs without the sun beating directly into his damn eyes. Percy stood up to head to a different bench when he was knocked to the ground.

Dazed and confused, his glasses being thrown from his face, Percy hit the ground like a ton of bricks. A giant mass of fur blocked out the sun like an eclipse and a giant wet tongue swept it’s way across his face. Blinking, he tried to figure out what the hell was happening but without his glasses it was hard to tell.

“Trinket! No dear! Leave him alone, come here dear!” A voice rang out, outside of his visual range. It was a voice he had heard before though, he was sure of it. The sound of boots hitting the pavements came closer and the giant mass moved to reveal a familiar face to go with the familiar voice. Even without his glasses Percy could tell it was the women from the coffee shop across the street from his store. 

“You…” He said softly looking up at her, propping himself up on his arm. 

“You,” She said back in a similar tone. Vex’ahlia leaned down and picked up his glasses. Handing them back to him. “I’m so sorry about him, he just gets really excited sometimes and breaks away from me!” Trinket let out a hearty boof before circling around Vex and sitting at her side, tail wagging. 

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Percy said getting to his knees before patting around on the ground trying to find his glasses. “Oh no..” He said after a second of not being able to find them. “You don’t happen to see my glasses do you?” He asked before sitting back on his heels. He pulled his hand up to block his eyes from the sun while he looked up at his nightly barista. 

“Oh! Of course!” Vex said looking around to try to find the golden circles she knew he wore. While she looked around into the nearby grass, Trinket trotted over to Percy and started licking his face. 

“Oh, uh, hi big guy,” Percy let out softly to the giant bear dog came for him again. This time it was a lot softer than the initial attack that got him into this position in the first place. 

Vex basically had to crawl under the bench that Percy had been sitting on before they got there to grab his glasses. “I found them dear!” Vex yelled out from under the bench. She crawled out and back to Percy, handing him the frames. 

“Thank you..” He responded putting them on and getting to his feet. Their were grass blade shaped smudges and a small crack at the bottom near the rim when he put them back on. He sighed a little but didn’t comment on it. 

“Oh no dear, your glasses! Trinket, look at what you did!” Trinket shrinked away from Percy looking guilty. “Is there any way I can make this up to you?”

“Sure, you could let me take you out to dinner,” Percy responded without really thinking while he tried to polish off the smudges off his glasses on his shirt. When he had realized what he had said he looking back up to Vex, a blush rolling across both of their faces. “H-how about Friday before your shift? Or we could do breakfast afterward?” His voice wasn’t as steady this time around.

“That.. That sounds absolutely wonderful dear, let’s do breakfast and we can see where it goes from there. Here’s my number,” She said pulling out a pen from her purse. Digging around, she tried to find an old receipt, a business card, anything she could to write her number on, but she had JUST cleaned out her purse. If it had been two days ago there would have been tons of things she could have written on. “Um, here,” grabbing his arm, she clicked her pen and wrote her number along it. 

“Oh uh, okay.” He said letting her ink his arm. He adjusted his glasses with his other hand and let his arm rest by his side once she was done with it. “I’ll see you then?” 

“Of course dear,” Vex responded, pulling her sunglasses down from the top of her head and walking away. 


	3. Tell All

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vex and Percy tell their days to two people close to them with two very different reactions.

“Hey, welcome home, how was your day?” A voice chimed as Percy closed the door to his boyfriend and coworkers house. A blond man with a goatee stood up from his work bench, sauntering over to kiss his boyfriend. Pulling away, Taryon looked up and let out a little gasp, “Your glasses!”

Percy let out a soft laugh, “Yeah I was going to say, my day was a little bit crazy.”

“Let’s get you to the couch, I’ll swap your lenses and you tell me how this happened.”

Percy sat down with a huff, not being able to see anything, retelling his day to Tary. Taking out some tools to pop out the lense, Tary nodded along, not realizing that Percy probably couldn’t see it anyway. Percy broke his glasses quite a lot so Tary kept some spare lenses in his work bench for situations like this. The timing with the end of the story and replacing the lens lined up almost perfectly as Tary stood up from his desk to place Percy’s glasses back on his face. 

“I think I really like her Tary.” Tary smiled and sat down next to Percy. 

“It sounds like it! I hope the date goes well, I’d love to meet her, she sounds delightful,” Tary felt his phone buzz in his pocket and pulled out the screen. “Oh dear, I forgot it was date night with Lawrence! I gotta go!” The blonde man stood up sharply, dusted himself off, kissed Percy on the head and was out the door in a flash. A few seconds passed before the door swung open again, Tary gave an awkward smile, grabbed his keys off of the table to his right and waved before leaving again. Percy couldn’t help but smile and let out a soft laugh as his forgetful boyfriend left. 

 

“Aw Trinket you little matchmaker!” A black haired man bent down and ruffled the side of the big dogs fur. 

“I mean, he’s definitely not little, thats for sure. He knocked him square off his feet!” Vex laid dramatically on the couch as if she was at a psychiatrist appointment. Her twin brother had just sat through Vex’s crazy day. 

“And this is the same bloke that comes into the shop super late at night? The one who was super awkward that one time?” Vax, now a little more interested in playing with Trinket than in Vex’s story, pushed the dog over playfully and rubbed his tummy. “Do you think you’ll take him for a ride?” Vax looked over, winking at his sister.

“I mean MAYBE, he’s quite hot, brother! Like properly hot!” Vex threw up her arms and then covered her eyes. “I don’t know, I guess we’ll see how this goes. What are your plans for the night?” Vex let her hands fall away from her eyes and looked over at Vax who was basically laying on Trinket but his tail was wagging so much, he didn’t seem to mind. 

“Scan Man wants to go out for drinks, he says he’s bringing one of his friends so we can all hang out together. Pickle said she might be able to come out too, she’s gotta see how much homework she gets tonight. Nursing school is really taking its toll on her, I don’t even remember the last time I saw her.”

“That sounds like a pretty good night. A few drinks to loosen up from,” Vex waved her hand around “all that shit from earlier.”

“Yeah.. Yeah! You should come with us!” Vax sat up from his Trinket shaped bed and held his hand out to Vex for help up. She obliged and stood up, helping her twin up from the floor.

“I’ll text Pike, tell her I’m coming out too, maybe that’ll get her to come out with us.”

Vax pulled his phone out and looked at the time. “Oh shit, we need to get ready!” Vax hurried off to his room to pick an outfit for the night. The weather looked like it was going to be a little chilly but not freezing, perfect weather for cute fall outfits. Vex sighed and headed across the hall to her room and looked through her closet. 

After a few rounds of outfits and disapproving looks from the other, the two finally settled on their outfits for the night. Both twins picked boots, but very different boots. Vax opting for classic black Doc Martens while Vex opted for white leather boots. Vax picked black ripped jeans, a red flannel shirt tied around his waist, a black t-shirt and a leather jacket. His hair was tied back into a bun with a feather dangling from it. Vex picked out a tight fitting black skirt, a black tank top, and a flowy white cardigan. Her hair was expertly braided to the side and a blue feather tucked behind her ear. The two looked each other over and high fived before their doorbell rang.

“Heeellllloooo twins! Are you ready for a good ass niiiiight?!” A familiar voice carried its way through their as a short man is an overly sparkly outfit all but kicked in their door. 

Vax threw out his arms and a giant smile spread across his face. “Scanlan!” 


End file.
